Monday, October 31, 2016

A natural compound found in vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and cucumber are potential anti-ageing remedies. (Shutterstock, iStock)

According to a study, supplements of a natural compound can compensate the human body for the loss of energy production, and reduce the typical signs of ageing.

With age, the body structure loses its capacity to make a key element of energy production called NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). This results in gradual weight gain, loss of insulin sensitivity and decline in physical activity.

A team of researchers at Washington University - St. Louis, has found a natural compound called NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) with potential anti-ageing remedies. NMN naturally occurs in a number of foods, including broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, edamame and avocado.

The research, conducted on ageing mice, showed a way to slow the physiologic decline in them, which means older mice can have metabolism and energy levels resembling that of younger mice.

“Since human cells rely on this same energy production process, we are hopeful this will translate into a method to help people remain healthier as they age,” said Shin-ichiro Imai, Professor at Washington University - St. Louis.

Edemame is a commonly-found bean used cuisine of China, Japan, Korea and Hawaii.

Administering NMN was found to help energy metabolism by improving the function of mitochondria, powerhouse of cells.

Further, the mice given NMN gained less weight with ageing even as they consumed more food, likely because their boosted metabolism generated more energy for physical activity.

In addition, NMN supplementation led to improved insulin sensitivity in the older mice, better functioning of the mouse retina as well as increased tear production, which is often lost with ageing.

Avocado, originally coming from South Mexico, can grow in tropical and Mediterranean climates throughout the world.

On the other hand, these NMN supplementation had no effect in the young mice because they are still making plenty of their own NMN, the researchers said.

NMN, when dissolved in drinking water and given to mice, appeared in its bloodstream in less than three minutes. This NMN in the blood could then quickly convert to NAD in multiple tissues, reducing the signs of ageing.

“We wanted to make sure that when we give NMN through drinking water, it actually goes into the blood circulation and into tissues,” Imai said.

Everybody loves a blame game.If stock markets crash just after you made your first investment in equity, it’s a bad gamble. When interest rates rise just when you take a home loan, you blame it on your luck.Our bad luck happens all too often!!

As a finance writer earlier and now as a financial planning guide for women, I have come to understand that we choose to multiply our savings with our habits and attitudes and not just due to sheer luck or timing.

I spend a lot of time helping people understand their wealth-obstructing habits. The top five are:

#1. Procrastination: Close the dormant bank accounts.Visit the post office to encash national saving certificate (NSC). Start a systematic investment into a mutual fund.

Our financialto-do-list just keeps growing. I admit having a long-one as well. Until I got an SMS alert from my bank about low minimum balance in3 out of 4 savings accounts I have, I didn’t realise that I needed to close the dormant ones.

Similarly a cousin in his early forties has been “thinking of an SIP” since the past 5 years.

A few weeks ago, I advised a friend to consolidate her multiple insurance policies into one and invest money in other avenues. She is yet to take out a weekend to figure out the list of the policies she has.

We make great plans but don’t implement it until we realise what is the cost of postponing these decisions.May be I should call up my cousin and say “You just lost the opportunity to earn 14-15% return on your savings”

2. Staying Ignorant: Our ignorance is a blessing for someone who is lurking around for a big bonus or a commission. Someone who parked their savings into unit-linked insurance plan (ULIP) will very well understand the dangers of ignorance.

These days,bankers give it a fancy name; a savings product with words like guaranteed rate of return thrown into it. Recently a high net worth senior citizen couple in my family were persuaded to open a third bank account along with a Rs 20 lakh commitment into a closed-ended fund for 7 years. The banker came through a friend’s reference so they trusted him.

Staying ignorant these days could easily lead you into a trap of investments not suited for you.

3. Being Fearful Always: Indeed equities are a very risky asset class. My heart sank when I heard a 22 year old engineering graduate telling me “I would rather put my first job’s savings in fixed deposits otherwise I will lose all of it in shares” The young man wasn’t really convinced about the mutual fund route too. You will have to work really hard for your retirement is what I felt like telling him.

Not that staying away from shares or equity funds is a wrong decision but there are some risks you can take early on in life. At 45, you should think twice about the equity risk you take. At 22, you can atleast try and see what a risky asset looks like.

4. Living a Life others live: We think owning the latest car or a phone is an absolute necessity, even if it depletes in value the moment we purchase it. For some people I have seen, a palm size tablet phone has got more value than a kids’ education fund.

Instead of our income, or budgets, it’s our office colleagues, relatives and neighbours Facebook posts that decide our expenditure. Whatever is left is what we save instead of it being the other way round.

5.Expecting a Free Ride Always: Let’s admit that we love bargains and we love free goodies with our grocery bills. But how many times do we really find those goodies worth using? 8 out of 10 times we don’t use it. Same is the case for the free financial advice that you always look out for? A free insurance or the accident cover that comes with credit card or investment plans, may not serve the purpose at all.

A stock broker will tell you to buy a stock that he must have bought two years ago at a much lower price.

But it’s our fickle mind that at times doesn’t want to do our own research and instead look out for someone who can tell us the best insurance policy or the best fund that will double the money at one go.

Do you relate to any of these wealth-obstructing habits? Would love to know how you plan to overcome them.

About the Author: Rachna Monga Koppikar is the founder of thegreatgruhini.com, India's first personal finance website that helps women navigate through the money maze.

Having swam and mastered the treacherous waters of corporate and personal finance writing, she is now on a mission through her blog to make every Indian woman a Money Savvy Woman and a Money Savvy Mom!

The tiles, made from glass, are intended to be a more attractive way to add solar panels to homes, compared with currently-used solar technology.

The launch took place in Universal Studios, Los Angeles, on what used to be the set for the television show Desperate Housewives.

It comes with Tesla due to take over struggling energy firm Solar City.

Some of the electric carmaker's investors have expressed concern over the takeover, suggesting it is a Tesla-funded bail-out of a company Mr Musk has a vested interest in as its biggest shareholder.

Solar City’s chief executive is Mr Musk’s cousin.

Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionThe product was showcased on houses which once served as the set for Desperate Housewives

Bringing the solar tiles to the Desperate Housewives set was a way of displaying the idea’s key selling point: it looks far better than solar panelling. Mr Musk jokingly described it as a “sweet roof!”.

No price was given for the tiles, which come in a variety of colours and styles, though Mr Musk did say it would be cheaper than fitting a traditional roof and then adding solar on top.

Also part of the launch was Powerwall 2, Tesla’s home battery product. The primary function of the Powerwall is to store any surplus energy from the solar panels. It will cost $5,500 (£4,511), Mr Musk said.

Tesla posted a surprise profit in its last quarterly earnings - its first in three years.

The $2.6bn acquisition of Solar City seems set to see the company plunge back into the red, but Mr Musk insisted on Friday that the deal made sense as having separate companies would “slow things down”.

Tesla shareholders vote on the acquisition on 17 November.

Image copyrightTESLAImage captionWhat a house fitted with Tesla's solar roof tiles may look like

“We find that the detected signals have exactly the shape of an [extraterrestrial intelligence] signal predicted in the previous publication and are therefore in agreement with this hypothesis,” wrote Borra and Trottier.

They also note that their findings align with the Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI) hypothesis, since the mysterious activity only occurred in a tiny fraction of stars. The hypothesis also suggests that an intelligent life force would use a more sophisticated optical beacon than, say, radio waves to reveal its existence.

Researchers sifted through data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey — an 8-foot-diameter telescope in Sunspot, New Mexico — to separate natural signals from ones that appeared generated.

But there are more skeptics than not, including the authors themselves, who acknowledge the hypothesis still needs work. For starters, the data need to be verified by at least two other telescopes and all natural causes need to be ruled out.

“Although unlikely,” the study notes “there is also a possibility that the signals are due to highly peculiar chemical compositions in a small fraction of galactic halo stars.”

Breakthrough Listen — a $100 million global effort to hunt for alien life, backed by Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg — said the signals are worth additional research, but not to get too excited.

“It is too early to unequivocally attribute these purported signals to the activities of extraterrestrial civilizations,” the organization said in a statement. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Back-to-Back Explosions Hit Japanese City

Rueben Nsemoh, 16, shocked family members and doctors when he opened his eyes after a three-day coma and began uttering sentences in Spanish, despite having known only a few words before his accident.

“It started flowing out,” the teen told TIME on Monday. “I felt like it was like second nature for me. I wasn’t speaking my English right, and every time I tried to speak it I would have a seizure.”

“It was weird,” Rueben added. “It was not scary at all. I actually liked it a lot. It was really unique to me.”

Another teenager accidentally kicked Rueben on the right side of his head during a game on Sept. 24 after Rueben dove for a loose ball, he said.

Rueben, an aspiring professional soccer player, suffered a severe concussion, went into shock and had to be airlifted to a hospital, according to his mother, Dorah Nsemoh.

Days after being treated in the intensive care unit, Rueben finally started stirring again. He began moving his hand and gesturing for food. And then he blurted out: “Tengo hambre,” or “I am hungry” in Spanish.

“I was very shocked. That’s something he’s never done before. When he got up and he started speaking Spanish, I was confused,” said Nsemoh, a 54-year-old high school teacher who is from Nigeria.

Nsemoh then ran out of the room to find help and brought back a nurse. “A nurse asked me what language does he speak. I said, ‘I speak English. He speaks English. We’re not Spanish-based people,’” Nsemoh said.

Doctors have not told the family why Rueben woke up speaking perfect Spanish, although they have sought consultation with a neurologist.

It’s not unprecedented for patients to start speaking a different language or using different accents after a major trauma. In June, a Texas woman made headlines after she had surgery on her lower jaw and then suddenly started speaking with a British accent.

That case was diagnosed as foreign accent syndrome, a very rare condition in which people speak with a different accent, usually after head trauma or stroke, according to CNN. Severe cases of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and concussions can also cause changes in language function, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Rueben says he could recite just a few phrases in Spanish before his accident. The only ways he had heard Spanish were from his brother, who had previously studied in Spain, and his Spanish-speaking teammates.

In the weeks after the accident, Rueben gradually recovered the ability to speak English, and now he speaks both languages fluently, although he says the Spanish has begun to fade.

Doctors say Rueben’s brain scans suggest he will fully heal, but the family has been overwhelmed by mounting medical bills in the $250,000 range, Nsemoh said. A GoFundMe page for Rueben has collected more than $11,000 to go toward the teen’s medical costs.

“Definitely, it’s a miracle,” Nsemoh said. “My son is awake, I don’t care what language he’s speaking. Whatever went on, he’s alive today and I believe 100 percent in recovery.”